Rutgers University School of Social Work, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2022 Jul 27;22(1):575. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03598-y.
To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded Technology Transfer Centers had to rapidly adapt to ensure that the behavioral health workforce had continuous access to remote training and technical assistance (TTA). Although the Technology Transfer Centers have historically relied partially upon virtual methods for delivering TTA, the shift to a strictly virtual approach necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions has raised new questions for how to best proceed with services when social distancing guidelines are relaxed. The objective of this exploratory paper was to compare TTA provision in the six-month period prior to (9/1/19 thru 2/28/20) and during (4/1/20 thru 9/30/20) early COVID-19 restrictions to determine the extent to which the shift to virtual service provision impacted the behavioral health and medical workforce. Specifically, we examined participants' access to TTA, geographic reach of TTA, and workforce perceptions of satisfaction and utility with TTA provision.
Participant and event-level data were analyzed to compare the following metrics before and during the COVID pandemic: number of events and attendees; participant demographics; zip codes reached; coverage of rural, suburban, and urban areas; and perceptions of satisfaction with and utility of training.
Findings showed a 40% increase in the number of events delivered (p < .001) and a 270% increase in the number of attendees (p < .001) during the COVID period when TTCs relied exclusively on virtual delivery. Geospatial analyses linking zip codes to a schematic of rural, suburban, and urban classifications throughout the United States revealed significant increases in the number of zip codes reached during the COVID time period. Satisfaction levels were comparable before and during the pandemic.
Findings show that expanded access to TTA services via virtual formats resulted in reach to more diverse attendees and regions, and did not come at the expense of satisfaction. Results suggest that virtual TTA should continue to be an important component of TTA offerings post-pandemic.
为应对 COVID-19 大流行，美国物质滥用和心理健康服务管理局（Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration）资助的技术转让中心（Technology Transfer Centers）不得不迅速做出调整，以确保行为健康工作者能够持续获得远程培训和技术援助（TTA）。尽管技术转让中心在历史上部分依赖虚拟方法来提供 TTA，但 COVID-19 限制所要求的严格虚拟方法转变，引发了关于在放宽社会距离准则时如何最好地继续提供服务的新问题。本文旨在比较 COVID-19 早期限制之前（2020 年 9 月 1 日至 2 月 28 日）和期间（2020 年 4 月 1 日至 9 月 30 日）六个月内 TTA 的提供情况，以确定向虚拟服务提供的转变对行为健康和医疗工作者的影响程度。具体而言，我们检查了参与者获得 TTA 的情况、TTA 的地理覆盖范围以及劳动力对 TTA 提供的满意度和实用性的看法。
对参与者和事件级别的数据进行分析，以比较 COVID 大流行前后以下指标：事件和与会者的数量；参与者的人口统计学特征；到达的邮政编码；农村、郊区和城市地区的覆盖范围；以及对培训的满意度和实用性的看法。
研究结果表明，在 COVID 期间，TTC 完全依赖虚拟交付时，提供的事件数量增加了 40%（p <.001），与会者人数增加了 270%（p <.001）。将邮政编码与美国农村、郊区和城市分类的示意图相链接的地理空间分析显示，在 COVID 期间到达的邮政编码数量显著增加。满意度水平在大流行前后相当。
研究结果表明，通过虚拟格式扩大 TTA 服务的获取途径，使更多样化的参与者和地区能够获得服务，并且没有降低满意度。结果表明，虚拟 TTA 应继续成为大流行后 TTA 服务的重要组成部分。
